Every 4.5 minutes, a baby is born with a birth defect or congenital anomaly requiring specialized care. Today, Miami Valley Hospital and Dayton Children’s Hospital announced the formation of the Fetal to Newborn Care Center, a new resource to provide a seamless continuum of care to women facing a high-risk pregnancy. The Fetal to Newborn Care Center was created out of the Southwest Ohio Neonatal Collaborative, a joint venture between the Level IIIB neonatal intensive care units at Miami Valley and Dayton Children’s.

“The Southwest Ohio Neonatal Collaborative was born out of discussions between our two hospitals regarding the need and opportunity to provide more coordinated and seamless maternal, fetal and critically-ill newborn care,” says Debbie Feldman, president and CEO of Dayton Children’s. “Since forming the collaborative, we determined that one of the best ways to do this was to create the Fetal to Newborn Care Center in order to provide expectant mothers facing a high-risk pregnancy guided access to the region’s leading experts in maternal-fetal and newborn medicine.”

For decades, Miami Valley Hospital and Dayton Children’s have worked together to provide quality care to women facing high-risk pregnancies and fetal conditions. The difference and the heart of the Fetal to Newborn Care Center is a nurse navigator who will guide patients from diagnosis through delivery and beyond.

“We have a responsibility to our patients to provide comprehensive, high-quality, and compassionate care,” said Mark Shaker, president & CEO of Miami Valley Hospital. “Our collaboration provides care at every stage of pregnancy and beyond allowing our patients to receive specialized care with the convenience of remaining close to home and nearby support systems.”

Sharon Orozco, MS, RNC-OB, will serve as the nurse navigator for the center. Sharon comes with more than 25 years of professional nursing experience, specializing in perinatal and women’s health. She will address questions, schedule appointments, provide test follow-up and coordinate care to assure that the focus remains on the mother and baby.

Building on the strengths of Miami Valley Hospital and Dayton Children’s Hospital, women at the Fetal to Newborn Care Center will have access to the expertise at both locations depending on the unique needs of each pregnancy including full access to a dedicated team of maternal-fetal care specialists, high-risk obstetricians, neonatologists, neonatal surgeons and pediatric subspecialists. Coordinated services of the Fetal to Newborn Care Center include:

Genetic counseling to help determine risks of birth defects or genetic disorders.

Mothers will also be able to research fetal conditions and learn more about the services provided by the center at fetaltonewborn.org.

Dr. Marc Belcastro, Chief of Staff and Medical Director of the Newborn Intensive Care Unit and Newborn Nursery at Miami Valley Hospital added, “The Fetal to Newborn Care Center will greatly enhance our ability to accurately diagnose and address those issues impacting our tiniest and most vulnerable patients. In essence, it’s a resource that will allow us to more effectively attend to the unique needs of each pregnancy, through specialized care at all stages of development, as well as after birth.”

“Most major birth defects or fetal conditions can be diagnosed during pregnancy giving the opportunity to begin planning follow-up and treatment even before birth,” says David Yohannan, MD, Medical Director of Newborn Intensive Care at Dayton Children’s. “The unique team-based approach of the Fetal to Newborn Care Center allows us to manage the complexity of each particular situation and develop a care plan targeted at delivering the best-possible outcome.”

About the Southwest Ohio Neonatal Collaborative

While Miami Valley Hospital and Dayton Children’s have held an informal relationship with each other for many years, the Southwest Ohio Neonatal Collaborative began on July 1, 2013 as a joint venture between the Level IIIB neonatal intensive care units at Miami Valley Hospital and Dayton Children’s Hospital. The focus of the collaborative is to elevate the quality of care and strengthen the health care delivery system for mothers and babies by drawing on the expertise of the two regional high-risk centers. Part of the Southwest Ohio Neonatal Collaborative, the Fetal to Newborn Care Center is a joint program provided by Miami Valley Hospital and Dayton Children’s Hospital in order to provide expectant mothers facing a high-risk pregnancy guided access to the region’s leading experts in maternal-fetal and newborn medicine. The hospital facilities at which health care services are rendered are operated either by Miami Valley Hospital or the Dayton Children’s Hospital with services billed by each of them in that manner. This joint program was established to provide a coordinated continuum of health care services by the participating hospitals.

About Miami Valley Hospital

Miami Valley Hospital is a full-service, acute care hospital located in Dayton, Ohio. The largest healthcare provider in the region with 874 licensed beds, Miami Valley operates the area’s only: Level I trauma center, high-risk obstetrics, perinatal center and Level III-B NICU all in the same facility, and blood and marrow transplant unit. The hospital holds Magnet® Status for nursing excellence and has been recognized by National Research Corporation as a Consumer Choice Award winner in the Dayton market for eighteen consecutive years. For more information, visit www.mvh.org.

Miami Valley Hospital is a member of Premier Health, which also encompasses Miami Valley Hospital South in Centerville, Good Samaritan Hospital in Dayton, Atrium Medical Center in Warren County and Upper Valley Medical Center in Miami County.

About Dayton Children’s Hospital

One of only 45 independent freestanding children’s hospitals in the country, Dayton Children’s is the region’s only medical facility dedicated to children. Accredited by The Joint Commission and serving 20 Ohio counties and eastern Indiana, the experts at Dayton Children’s care for more than 290,000 children each year. Consistently recognized as one of the country’s best and most cost-effective pediatric hospitals, Dayton Children’s is home to the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics and together with the United States Air Force shares the nation’s only civilian-military integrated pe­diatric training program. For more children’s health and safety information, visit our web site at www.childrensdayton.org.

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